Exposing the underbelly of Armstrongism in all of its wacky glory! Nothing you read here is made up. Every crazy, weird and wacky quote is straight from the pens of Armstrongite leaders or members who think they possess some insight into God and the Bible. What you read here is the up to date face of Herbert W Armstrong's legacy. It's the gritty and dirty behind the scenes look at Armstrongism as you have never seen it before!

Saturday, November 17, 2012

UCG Still Struggling Financially

Things still are not rosy, money wise, within UCG. After COGWA's stealth apostasy against the UCG, hundreds of thousands of dollars no longer flow into UCG's coffers. Money continues to be tight as many UCGers are withholding tithes and offerings as they wait and see what is going to happen.

A recent UCG financial report states:

I’ve heard, second hand, that the income has grown some in the last
year but frankly we now realize that we had not made the necessary
reductions to reflect our reduced income from what we were receiving two
years ago. My understanding is that the savings we had, that would
have been enough to take us through 10 weeks of no income, is now
basically gone and we’re having a cash flow crunch. Some expenses that
were to be paid before the Feast of Tabernacles were paid after the
feast. There is still a cash flow problem despite having a good feast
offering.

Church employees in the U. S. no longer receive matching funds for
retirement accounts (this is one cut that was made two years ago).
Healthcare benefits are going to have to be cut. There will probably be
larger deductibles and co-pays.

Church pastors are being asked to cut down on trips and their mileage
reimbursements are being lowered. Most meetings are now being done on
the phone or online rather than face-to-face. The Council of Elders is
having most of its meetings online, though they do need to get together
face-to-face for some things. Aaron Dean, our treasurer, wrote us this:
“I hope that cutbacks in our travel will be a temporary situation, and
that God will bless us with more income from donors. Please fervently
pray as I and all in the Home Office are praying for God to increase
income, heal our employees and increase our faith in him. The whole
country faces a rough road ahead, as you all have preached for many
years. In the meantime, please do more phone visits and less driving
where possible.”

"frankly we now realize that we had not made the necessary reductions to reflect our reduced income from what we were receiving two years ago."

Great job Aaron. This is what happens when "minister" becomes the only necessary qualification for every job. Please oh please oh please run it into the ground, and then explain to everyone how it was "god's will".

"...God will bring us through this cash flow problem. This is not a bad problem. God is giving the Church a good income; we just have to learn to live within it. I support the administration in making these necessary cuts and in working to live within the income that God gives us..."

So, what's the problem? Live within the income!

For so many years WCG and xcogs have put together their annual budgets where they basically tell God to provide some percentage INCREASE in income.....instead of living within what God would provide. That's assuming God had anything to do with them and those budgets.

What was that parable about building some tower and having sufficient bricks to build it?

God's thinking would be "live within it, within what is provided." And if God were really in charge and He really wanted to accomplish more, requiring more income, then He would provide it.

Live within the income! Doesn't that make sense? Less income: do less! More income: do more!

Whoever wrote that report made sense by saying: "...This is not a bad problem. God is giving the Church a good income; we just have to learn to live within it..."

The question is: Will they learn it before they again divide, splinter, disintegrate and scatter further into some spiritual wilderness of mountains, ravines, ditches to jump in between and "rocks" to munch on: more junk food?

The UCG needs to continue to drop in the numbers of people who attend there. As the people leave the income will continue to drop. They remind me so much of the WCG in the late 80's and early 90's. We are glad to have left!

It's not a silver bullet, but one finds Christian organizations to be more authentic if the ministry is not living high on the hog.

I've come to believe that it's actually a sin to tithe to the types of people who spend moneys intended for the gospel on gold tableware, expensive works of art, multiple luxury homes and cars, and the like. The spirit of Gehazi is alive and well in most of Armstrongism!